The start of the new Premier League season has seen a fresh round of claims that foreign players are preventing the progress of English youngsters.

But Kompany, who began his career at Anderlecht in his native Belgium before moving to Germany's Hamburg at age 20 and then City two years later, disagrees.

He said: “As much as the English population complain about lack of opportunity for their own young players to come through to the first team, in our country they complain our young players always go to English clubs.

“It goes both ways.

"What has made my development is not the fact that I started in the Premier League at 17 or 18 because it is not realistic. It is the fact that I started at Anderlecht at 17 and played Champions League at 17 and moved on when I was 20.

And here come the Belgians! Kompany and co went further than England in Brazil (Photo: Getty)

“That made a difference for players like me, Eden Hazard, Vertonghen, Dembele - all the players in my national team. We started at smaller clubs.

“If you think about England, what needs to change is the mindset that English players should accept at a younger age to take experience abroad or in leagues where it is easier to play, where it is less demanding either physically or when it comes to results. It is as simple as that.

“What happened was very simple. You (England) rest on your laurels a little bit because you have had success for so long, and then you get a slap like the last World Cup and all of a sudden it makes you progress 10 years.

“It’s a good recovering cycle. It was a very important slap, a good one, one that will make English players reach another level.

“You can see already that the youngest players are not the same as 10 years ago, technically. Go down to 10-12 year olds - different football being played.

“It’s a different game, different philosophies, red flags all over the place, which means people know what to look out for.”